New Perspectives in Virtual Environments for Opera Music

Digitalisation in classical western music is an area of ongoing research, educational innovation and socio-political interest. Several Erasmus+ and Horizon projects are studying and experimenting new solutions for a philological and technological innovation in academic and performing environments of classical music. In this context, opera music is the crossroad of aesthetic, technological and performing ability of artists and artistic communities. As a blended art form of music, theatre, visual arts and literature, opera is one of the more complete art forms in live performance. Technology played an important role in the making of operas, so that networked technologies, XR and virtual environments cannot be ignored in the interpretation of the operas of the past and in the creative process of a new musical theatre. Virtual environments include visual and sound context of opera music; these contexts must deal with technological issues and limitations - such as latency in the audio signal also give the opportunity to offer a more immersive experience in opera music, and the opportunity to reduce the carbon footprint by using virtual music and stage rehearsals. This paper presents the results of the Erasmus+ project Virtual Stage and the preliminary research perspectives of the Horizon project CAPHE, led by Jiagellonian University of Krakov, including modern techniques such as Networked Music Performance for music rehearsals and 3D graphic environments for stage rehearsal.